‘S’ Is For Seer

Though driverless cars, while closer to becoming reality than ever before–were foretold pretty accurately about sixty years earlier in the British adventure series Department S (I assume that the ‘S’ stands for the first letter of the last name of Sir Curtis Seretse, played by Dennis Alaba Peters), who headed a fictional organization that handled situations that stumped more traditional law enforcement.

The episode, Who Plays The Dummy, at heart revolvedaround the villains attempting to use a guidance system to sabotage an American space launch, though self-driving cars featured prominently in the episode.

I don’t claim that this is the first use of driverless cars as a plot device–I recall there being one in the Sean Connery James Bond movies-but few echo so closely to what is going on with driverless cars today (and it should go without saying that as soon as the technology is perfected someone will try to use it from some sort of criminal enterprise).